Military technology has become highly advanced to the point where we have space-age, aerial laser weapons, high flying drones with hell-fire missiles and sophisticated robotics. But the primary weapon of war that is used world-wide today is still the low-tech cartridge that is fired from a rifle, such as an AK-47.
One need only to turn on the television news on any day to see the various terror groups and enemy combatants that are using cartridges as their primary technology to kill with. This type of distributed enemy capability is very costly and difficult to overcome with high technology, such as drones, cruise missiles, and close air support gunships, because the enemy just scatters and blends in with the local population to hide.
The one thing an enemy combatant always has with him is his automatic rifle and a supply of cartridges. A country or a super power nation could spend hundreds of millions of dollars on various types of high-tech airstrikes without ever making a dent in this type of distributed, low-tech enemy force. To confront this enemy, it seems to always come back to a discussion of “boots on the ground” and how many persons are willing to be put at great risk.
The inevitable consequence is that the more soldiers committed as ground troops, translates to more body bags, missing limbs, and internet videos of severed heads.